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Singing

No one has ever left worship humming the sermon

When preachers and musicians argue about the
most important parts of worship, musicians win hands down. In my
experience, no one has ever left worship humming the sermon.

Worship
is countercultural, and singing is the most countercultural part of it.
So what we sing on Sundays has a way of getting into our souls. Worship
isn’t something we watch as a spectator sport. It’s something we do
together—all four or 40 or 400 of us. And singing is what unites us.

Some
would say singing is just something we do every so often during the
ritual of worship. Or maybe it’s background music while something else
is happening. But it’s more accurate to say singing is what gets the
liturgy done by the assembly, not something extra, not something to
make things longer or more solemn or happier. Singing is us doing the
liturgy. It is the church doing what it needs to do. There are at least
two reasons why singing is challenging for many of us, why it’s so
countercultural, why we hesitate to raise the roof with song.